Tussle between school, parents; students in a fix

28 children issued TC, parents’ misbehaviour cited as reason

Twenty-eight students of Doveton Boys Higher Secondary School and Doveton Girls Higher Secondary School in Vepery face an uncertain future after their schools issued transfer certificates to them. Incidentally, the parents of these students had waged a legal battle with the school over management fee that is charged from them. The school though denied the issue of the TCs had anything to do with the fee and cited the alleged misbehaviour of parents on school premises as the reason for the action.

Parents said they received the transfer certificates by speed post on 4 June. The school had sent a legal notice to the parents on May 29 asking them to collect the transfer certificates, and accused them and The Doveton group of schools, Student Parent Welfare Association of vandalising the premises on May 27 and fraudulently accusing the school of charging excess fees. The parents said they had gone there on May 27 as they had not got any information about fees and collection of books for the next academic year despite the fact that the school was to reopen in a few days.

“When we went there, we were asked to pay previous years’ management fee arrears. They said we had to meet the correspondent to settle the issue and waited till 8 in the night,” said N. Anand, president of the association and a parent.

The parents said that they had abided by a November 2012 court order and paid the fee fixed by the Inspector of Anglo-Indian schools through DD for 2012-13, and this did not include the management fee, which was yet to be fixed.

The parents alleged that children have been discriminated against due to the non-payment of management fee.

S. Arumainathan, state president, Tamil Nadu Students Parents Welfare Association, said that there are two class X students among the 28.

“We demand that the transfer certificates be withdrawn, and the students be taken in again in the school. It is unfair that action be taken against students,” he said.

Bhaskara Murthy, one of the parents, said that over the last two years, his two daughters were not given report cards or mark sheets despite the fact that they were promoted.

Mr. Wheeler, assistant to the correspondent of the schools, said that the notice clearly stated why transfer certificates had been sent and that the step had got nothing to do with the fee. “The tuition fee, which is fixed by the government, goes towards expenses such as payment of salaries of teachers. The management fee is to cover other expenses such as maintenance and electricity bills,” he said. Regarding the refusal of the school to issue identity cards and report cards, he added that these aspects also were covered by the management fee and the students who had not paid the fee would not be able to avail of these. “Though we are an aided school by nomenclature, we are not taking any aid,” he added.

The parents’ association submitted a petition to the Director of School Education on Wednesday requesting him to intervene.

Mr. Anand said that they would wait for a day before deciding on the future course of action. “Schools will reopen on 10 June and our children have been left in a limbo,” he said.